School of Psychology

Julie Costopoulos, Ph.D., Head

Professors

Gary Burns, Ph.D.; recruitment, assessment, selection, performance management, statistics

Patrick D. Converse, Ph.D.; personnel selection, work motivation, self-regulation, personality measurement

Julie S. Costopoulos, Ph.D.; forensic psychology, serious mental illness, criminal behavior

Richard L. Griffith, Ph.D.; cross-cultural competence, global leadership, response distortion on noncognitive selection procedures, advanced measurement, psychometrics

Scott Gustafson, Ph.D.; empirically supported treatments, transdiagnostic interventions, clinical psychophysiology, psychometrics, mental health administration and finance

Radhika Krishnamurthy, Psy.D.; ABAP; personality assessment with the MMPI-3/MMPI-A-RF and Rorschach, therapeutic test feedback, psychological assessment competency, diversity factors in assessment

Lisa A. Steelman, Ph.D.; workplace feedback processes, employee engagement, leadership/gender and leadership, global talent management

Vida L. Tyc, Ph.D.; health promotion, integrated behavioral health, pediatric behavioral health issues, risk perceptions, tobacco control

Jessica Wildman, Ph.D.; culture in the workplace, team dynamics, human-agent teaming, interpersonal trust

Associate Professors

Patrick Aragon, Psy.D.; empathy in the process of forgiveness and therapeutic necessity, chronic mental health with inpatient and homeless individuals, substance abuse prevention and intervention

Brian Fisak, Ph.D.; anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, child psychopathology, evidence-based interventions, mindfulness and acceptance-based interventions

Darby Proctor, Ph.D.; animal behavior and cognition; nonhuman primates, chimpanzees, spider monkeys, cockroaches, decision-making; evolution of cognition; behavioral economics; comparative psychology

Amanda Thayer, Ph.D.; organizational, industrial, teams, groups, collaboration, team composition, team staffing, team processes, dynamic, cohesion, trust, trust violation, trust repair, multiteam systems

Assistant Professors

Felipa T. Chavez, Ph.D.; racial/ethnic identity, substance abuse and addictions, child abuse and neglect

Travis W. Conradt, Ph.D.; child advocacy, child forensic interviewing, memory, suggestibility, psychology and law

Mary Caitlin Fertitta, Psy.D.; clinical supervision and training, psychological assessment and diagnosis, psychological testing, treatment planning and intervention, evidence-based theoretical models of psychology, obsessive compulsive disorders, OC-related disorders and other anxiety disorders 

Marshall A. Jones, DBA; leadership, police recruiting, field training and retention, implicit bias

Mariana Juras, Ph.D.; parenting interventions, divorce, remarriage, domestic violence, multicultural therapy

Liana Kreamer, Ph.D.; workplace meetings, teamwork, leader behaviors, ethical research practices

Brandon May, Ph.D.; decision-making in extreme environments; covert intelligence practices; investigative interviewing techniques for witnesses, victims and suspects; virtual reality training for critical incidents; countering misinformation and disinformation; AI applications in legal and policing contexts

Catherine Talbot, Ph.D.; primate cognition, sociality, face recognition, autism

Professors Emeriti

Juanita N. Baker, Ph.D.; Vanessa Edkins, Ph.D.; Richard T. Elmore Jr., Ph.D.; Philip D. Farber, Ph.D.; William K. Gabrenya Jr., Ph.D.; Arthur Gutman, Ph.D.; Thomas H. Harrell, Ph.D.; Mary Beth Kenkel, Ph.D.; Carol L. Philpot, Psy.D.; Frank M. Webbe, Ph.D.

Overview

The School of Psychology is located in quad buildings 405 and 406. Included are offices, conference rooms, faculty/staff/student lounges and a student meeting/reading room. Located on Florida Tech’s main campus is the Scott Center for Autism Treatment, which also houses the Community Psychological Services Center (CPS). The East Central Florida Memory Clinic (ECFMC) is also located in Melbourne.

The school operates the Scott Center for Autism Treatment, Center for Organizational Effectiveness, Center for Applied Criminal Case Analysis and Institute for Culture, Collaboration Management (ICCM). 

Psychology Honors Program

Academically gifted, highly motivated students may participate in the school’s honors program. Students who plan to seek graduate degrees are strongly advised to consider this program. Students interested in university-wide honors options can find more information under Honors College in Undergraduate Academic Information .

The psychology honors program is available to juniors enrolled in all undergraduate psychology programs (B.A., B.S., psychology; B.A., forensic psychology, and B.S., animal behavior and cognition). The honors program includes 6 credit hours of PSY 4515 Psychology Honors Thesis   or PSY 4417 Psychology Honors Research  that can be taken in place of PSY 4512 Personal and Professional Development   and PSY 4000 Field Internship and Research Project   requirements. Students must also complete a minimum of 3 credit hours of PSY 4590 Psychology Honors Seminar , usually taken in place of lower-level courses in the concentration area or in place of free electives. Only honors students may write a thesis.

Admission Requirements

Prospective honors students must have reached their junior year. Applicants should have completed a minimum of 12 hours of psychology (PSY, PSF) courses and have a minimum overall GPA of 3.4. These courses may be taken at Florida Tech or transferred from another four-year university. Transfer courses will not be included in the GPA calculation.

To earn the honors distinction, students must successfully complete the program with a graduating overall GPA of 3.4. Only courses taken at Florida Tech will be included in this calculation. 

Required Courses

PSY 4515 Psychology Honors Thesis  credit hours: 3 (taken twice for 6 credits)

PSY 4590 Psychology Honors Seminar  credit hours: 1 (3 credit hours required)

Minor Programs

Minors in psychology, forensic psychology, and child advocacy studies (CAST) are offered through the School of Psychology. A complete policy statement regarding minors can be found under Undergraduate Academic Information . Information about current minor offerings is available through the individual colleges or departments.

Policy Regarding Graduate Admissions

The following statement is specific to the agreement assumed between a prospective psychology graduate student and the School of Psychology. A resolution adopted by the Council of Graduate Schools in the United States, and supported by 362 universities and colleges, reads as follows:

Acceptance of an offer of financial aid (such as graduate scholarship, fellowship, traineeship or assistantship) for the next academic year by an actual or prospective graduate student completes an agreement that both student and graduate school expect to honor. In those instances, in which the student accepts the offer before April 15 and subsequently desires to withdraw, the student may submit in writing a resignation of the appointment at any time through April 15. However, an acceptance given or left in force after April 15 commits the student not to accept another offer without first obtaining a written release from the institution to which a commitment has been made. Similarly, an offer by an institution after April 15 is conditional on presentation by the student of the written release from any previously accepted offer. It is further agreed by the institutions and organizations subscribing to the above Resolution that a copy of this Resolution should accompany every scholarship, fellowship, traineeship and assistantship offer.

Academic Dismissal for Graduate Students

Students will be dismissed from further graduate study under the following circumstances:

1. A grade point average below 3.0 (doctoral students) or 2.0 (master’s students) at any stage of the doctoral program
2. Two or more grades of C, D, F or U
3. Unsatisfactory grades for nine credit hours of internship
4. Nonadmission to doctoral candidacy as defined under Degree Requirements
5. Failure to abide by the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Ethics of the American Psychological Association
6. Hampering the academic efforts of other students
7. Failure to maintain satisfactory progress in coursework or research, regardless of grade point average
8. Violation of the legal and ethical standards of the university, including, but not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, knowingly furnishing false information to the university or forging, altering or misusing university documents or academic credentials
9. Failure to demonstrate adequately those personal and interpersonal skills and attributes deemed suitable for the profession, as delineated in the psychology graduate student handbook

Graduate Academic Information  presents information concerning dismissal and the rights of the student to appeal dismissal decisions.

Research

Animal Behavior and Cognition: Faculty and undergraduate students are involved in a wide variety of research with nonhuman animals. This ranges from independent undergraduate research in our on-campus Roach Lab to collecting behavioral observations of exotic animals with our community partner, Brevard Zoo. Students have a unique opportunity to engage in meaningful research with animals as undergraduates.

Clinical Psychology: Faculty and doctoral students in the Clinical Psychology Psy.D. program are engaged in a number of research topics including personality assessment, self-knowledge, traumatology, child treatment, integrated behavioral health, adaptation to aging, forensic issues and neuropsychological assessment.

Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology: Faculty and students in the I/O program engage in innovative applied and basic research. Current research areas include feedback and coaching processes, team processes and team leadership, trust across cultures, cross-cultural competence, global leadership, workplace incivility and mistreatment, organizational citizenship behaviors, leadership in health care settings, occupational health psychology, self-regulation and personality, employee engagement and women’s leadership.

Organizational Behavior Management (OBM): Faculty and graduate students in the OBM program are actively engaged in a variety of research topics including the assessment and improvement of staff performance, behavior-based safety in organizations and pay-for-performance.

Forensic Psychology: Faculty and undergraduate students engage in a wide variety of research. For the forensic psychology program, faculty research programs cover topics such as diversion programs; the relationships among psychiatric diagnoses, personality variables and deviant or criminal behavior; criminal case analysis; and leadership emergence and development; the use of artificial intelligence in the criminal justice system, with a focus on cognitive fallacies and algorithmic reliance; interrogation and forensic interviewing best practices; and cognitive vulnerabilities of misinformation and disinformation asymmetric threats. 

Programs

• Applied Psychology, A.A.

• Applied Psychology, B.A.
• Forensic Psychology, B.A.
• Psychology, B.A.

• Animal Behavior and Cognition, B.S.
• Psychology, B.S.

• Child Advocacy Studies Minor
• Forensic Psychology Minor
• Psychology Minor

• Organizational Leadership, M.A.

• Industrial/Organizational Psychology, M.S.

• Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Ph.D.

• Clinical Psychology, Psy.D.